Technical Launch: Costa Fascinosa (photo)

The Costa Fascinosa, the latest ship to join the fleet of Costa Cruises today touched the water for the first time during her technical launch ceremony at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera.

Once the work to fit out her interiors has been completed, the Costa Fascinosa (114,500 gross tonnage and a capacity of 3,800 total Guests) will depart on her first cruise on 2nd May 2012.

About 3,000 employees and 7,000 workers from linked industries are contributing to the construction of the ship, and most of the companies involved in the shipbuilding activities, about 500, are Italian. Costa Cruises’s total investment to build the Costa Fascinosa amounts to approximately 510 million euros.

The Costa Fascinosa’s technical launch ceremony was carried out according to seafaring tradition. The launch started with the welding of a coin at the base of what was once the mainmast, a custom considered to bring good luck.

Then, the shipyard director invited the godmother, Mirca Pizzato, an employee of Marghera shipyards, to cut the ribbon and break a bottle of champagne against the bow of the Costa Fascinosa. Once the dry-dock basin where the ship took shape over the last few months had been filled with water, the hull finally had the chance to touch the sea for the first time.

“The launch of the Costa Fascinosa, less than one month after the delivery of the Costa Favolosa, named in Trieste on 2nd July, confirms the soundness and commitment of our company. Costa Cruises continues to help to the sector’s development in Europe, creating jobs in Italian shipyards," - declared Pier Luigi Foschi, Chairman and CEO of Costa Crociere.

"I can say that the strength of our brand, guaranteed by more than 60 years of experience, and the quality of our product will once again turn out to be the winning factors in what continues to be a difficult economic and geopolitical scenario.”

Since 2000, at a Group level, Costa Crociere S.p.A. (that along with the Costa Cruises brand includes AIDA Cruises, a leader in German-speaking markets, and Iberocruceros, which operates in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets) has developed a challenging investment plan to strengthen the fleet, involving 22 ships delivered from 2000 to 2013, for a total investment of 9.6 billion euros.

Fincantieri's CEO, Giuseppe Bono, commented: "Just a month after delivering the sister ship Costa Favolosa, Fincantieri is launching another flagship for Costa Crociere's partners. Although these two achievements are by no means enough to overcome the crisis in the industry, they are a source of reassurance and we believe that only by consolidating the alliance between two excellent Italian companies can we guarantee a future for two strategic sectors of our national industry, shipbuilding and tourism."